


Love, Lives, and Laser Tag

by starlightwalking



Series: A-Spectrum Anthology [11]
Category: The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Angst with a Happy Ending, Aromantic Fíli, F/M, Gen, Laser Tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-11
Updated: 2016-09-11
Packaged: 2018-08-14 13:40:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,841
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8016154
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starlightwalking/pseuds/starlightwalking
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After meeting someone strangely familiar, Fíli is plagued with troubling visions of another world. His new acquaintance Tauriel isn't making things any easier, especially as she takes a liking to his brother. Haunted by strange flashes into a life like his own and yet different, Fíli must try to figure out what's going on both inside his head and with the people around him.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Love, Lives, and Laser Tag

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Maggiemaye](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Maggiemaye/gifts).



> Happy birthday to the wonderful, one-and-only Maggiemaye!! I hope it's a great one.  
> There are some really angsty spots in this but it ends happily, I promise.  
> Check me out on tumblr as [arofili](http://arofili.tumblr.com/).

The first time Fíli met her, he was so surprised that he spilled coffee on her.

Now, as first meetings go, this wasn't the worst he'd experienced. He vividly remembered the first time he'd met his distant cousin Gimli, when he was five. They'd had a disagreement over whose turn it was on the swings, and Gimli had ended up sprawled on the ground crying.

Still, that had been nearly twenty years ago, and he was much older now. Spilling coffee on a stranger generally didn't mean that an amiable relationship was about to begin. But when this tall, red-headed girl had appeared before him in the street, he'd had a sudden vision of her glaring down at him, ordering him to drop— But then it had vanished, as quickly as he'd imagined it.

It still didn't leave quickly enough for him to stop in his tracks. He bumped right into her, dropping the coffee he'd been holding. The lid popped right off and hot liquid spilled all over her shirt, dripping down across her chest.

Mortified, Fíli jumped backward. "Oh my God!" he exclaimed. "I'm so sorry, I didn't mean—"

The girl stared at him, then down at her shirt. "Damn," she said at last. "Is this how you greet everyone in the street?"

"I'm _really_ sorry," he apologized again. "I'll just—I work literally ten feet away from here, at that coffee shop, let me just grab some napkins—"

"Don't bother," the girl sighed. "I'm going to have to change this shirt now. Good thing I brought an extra to work today. I meant to change into it later tonight, but I've got it now."

"Let me help you," Fíli said, feeling incredibly embarrassed.

The girl shook her head. "Fine, if it makes you feel better." She didn't sound angry, just resigned.

"I feel really bad," he apologized again.

The girl turned to cross the street, pulling the bottom of her shirt away from herself to keep the coffee from getting on her skin too much. Fíli followed her, still babbling apologies. He usually wasn't too talkative with strangers, but this situation was so ridiculous that all his normal barriers had vanished.

"It's fine!" the girl exclaimed as they reached the other side of the street. "Look, really, dude, it's fine. I'm not mad at you, I've got an extra shirt, and I'm on break right now." She turned to walk into a store. It was a newer coffee shop, recently refurbished by new owners. Fíli's uncle, the owner of the coffee shop across the street, was furious that he now had competition.

"You work _here_?" Fíli exclaimed. "In Greenwood Brews?"

"I'm the owner's daughter," she said, smiling wryly.

"Goddamnit," Fíli muttered under his breath. "Just my luck."

"So you work at the coffee shop across the street?" the girl said as they walked inside.

"Yep," he confirmed. "I'm the owner's nephew."

"You're our competition, huh?" She raised an eyebrow. "I'm not too impressed."

Normally, a comment like that would offend him, but after what he'd done to her, Fíli couldn't blame her. "Yeah..." He scratched the back of his head and shrugged. "Our coffee's great, but, uh...This one's my fault."

The girl shook her head. She led him up to the counter, then turned to look at him. "Stay here," she ordered. She strode past some doors labeled "Employees Only".

Fíli stared around Greenwood Brews. It was a tidy enough place, but just like the girl with his shop, he wasn't too impressed, particularly with the obnoxiously green décor. He loitered about the counter, staring up at the ceiling and the menu. He examined what Greenwood offered and grunted. It was very similar to the menu of his uncle's shop, Erebor. If their coffee tasted any good, Erebor was in for some serious competition in the coming years.

"You gonna order something?" asked a barista. He was tall and blond, with a grumpy expression.

Fíli shook his head. "No, thanks," he said.

"Then step back, you'll hold up the line," the barista told him.

Fíli glanced behind him. There wasn't much of a line, just a couple making goo-goo eyes at each other a few feet behind him. They didn't seem too interested in ordering anytime soon. He pulled a face, annoyed by the PDA, but he stepped back anyway. As he did, the couple leaned in for a kiss. Fíli looked away and rolled his eyes. What nonsense. Being aromantic, he had little patience for romance and everything that went along with it.

A few minutes later, the girl walked back out of the employee room, now wearing a different shirt. She strode up to him and folded her arms.

"Okay, now I get even with you," she said.

Fíli jumped back. "What?" he exclaimed. "You're gonna spill coffee on me now? I know that's not fun, but it _was_ an accident, and—"

"No!" The girl rolled her eyes. "But I _am_ going to make you buy coffee from us."

Fíli wilted. "That's almost worse," he mumbled. Thorin would be furious. "My uncle will kill me."

The girl laughed. "That's what I'm hoping."

He shook his head. "You're very cruel, ma'am."

"It's Tauriel," she said. She stuck out a hand and Fíli shook it. She was a head taller than him, but then, his whole family ran on the short side. He was used to being short. She had a firm grip, but so did he.

"Fíli Velson," he introduced himself. "My uncle's Thorin Durin." Since his connection to Thorin was through his mother, Dís Durin Velson, he and his brother Kíli didn't bear the same last name as their uncle.

"My dad's Thranduil Greenleaf," Tauriel said. She smirked. "He's already talking about how he's going to steal all your business, and we've only been opened for a week."

"I think my uncle would kill me if he saw me now," Fíli said ruefully. "At least I spilled coffee on you. That'll make him happy."

Tauriel laughed. "Well, since you apologized, I don't think his joy will last long. Especially since you're about to order from us."

Fíli groaned. "Isn't an apology enough?" he begged.

"Now," Tauriel ordered, crossing her arms.

It came again: a brief flash of another scene. Greenwood Brews was gone, replaced by a dark forest, and Tauriel was staring down at him coldly as he offered her something long and thin and—

The vision vanished, and Fíli was left staring at her. She furrowed her brows.

"You okay, dude?" she asked, sounding faintly concerned.

"Uh...yeah." Fíli shook his head. "Sorry." He'd nearly forgotten the first vision in the confusion after the spill, but now he was unsettled again. Was he going crazy? Or was this just his mind playing tricks on him? The visions were so brief he could barely pull the strange image back into his mind.

He turned and reluctantly got in line. The gooey couple now sat curled up together in a booth, sharing a coffee. He rolled his eyes. Romance was quite ridiculous.

The barista glowered at him as he ordered, and handed him the requested coffee sullenly. At least now Fíli had a drink to replace the one he'd spilled all over Tauriel, though this time he'd had to pay for it.

He sat down at a table. Tauriel sat across from him, smirking as he reluctantly took a sip. It wasn't bad, he thought grudgingly.

"How is it?" Tauriel asked.

"Passable," he muttered. "Ours is better, though."

"Mhmm." Tauriel didn't seem fazed. "I've already tried yours. Are you a barista over there?"

"No," he said, offended. "A supervisor. The owner's my _uncle_."

"Ahh, so Erebor favors nepotism," Tauriel teased.

"Hey!" he exclaimed. "I started off as a barista, I'll have you know, but that was _years_ ago. Are _you_ a barista?"

Tauriel flipped her red hair. "No," she said. "I help my father with the technical side of things. My brother is, though. He hasn't worked his way up through the ranks yet. Not that he's had much chance to, since we only just opened. You just ordered from him."

Fíli glanced back to the surly blond barista. So he was Tauriel's brother? Fíli was afraid he couldn't see the resemblance.

"Sorry again for spilling on you," he said.

"What happened?" Tauriel asked curiously. "One minute we were passing each other on the sidewalk, two complete strangers, and the next you stop in your tracks and spill hot coffee on my shirt."

"Well..." Fíli shook his head. The truth didn't make any sense, and he'd rather keep that to himself, anyway. "I guess you just reminded me of someone. I was a bit surprised."

"'A bit'?" Tauriel joked. "More like 'a lot'."

Fíli checked his watch. "I was on break, but I think this whole fiasco has taken up the time I'd hoped to spend relaxing."

"Same," Tauriel admitted. "I need to get back to Dad in ten minutes."

Fíli stood up. "Sorry about everything," he said again. "I'm glad you had an extra shirt."

"It's no big deal," Tauriel said dismissively. "I think I'll see you around, then, Fíli."

"Yeah," he agreed. "Goodbye. Hopefully this was a one-time thing. I'll be a bit more careful walking down the street now."

Tauriel laughed, and Fíli's mind flashed to another strange picture. This time she stood far away from him, laughing softly at a joke said by—Then it vanished and he was left frozen, staring at her.

This time she'd already turned away. He stood, befuddled by the strange visions. What was going on? This was the third time now. He didn't want to believe something weird was happening, so he shoved it to the back of his mind. He turned and left the shop.

* * *

Fíli stood in a dark forest. People pressed around him, and a vile stench filled his nostrils. He was surrounded, panicked, desperate. Where was Bilbo? How had he gotten down?

He didn't have the time to think about that for long. Spiders were around him, spiders three times his size. He drew his blade and smote the closest one. Beside him, his companions fought as well.

Kíli rushed away from him. Fíli yelled, not wanting to be separated from his brother, but Kíli was gone.

Suddenly arrows flew through the air, and the spiders fell dead to the ground. Fíli felt a rush of relief, but it didn't last long. Elves. They were almost as bad as spiders.

Fíli found himself surrounded, this time by elves. A blond elf glowered down at him, and he gritted his teeth. Mixed with his anger was a strange new feeling: recognition. He'd seen this elf somewhere before...

Another elf joined him, her hair a deep, burning red. They were hideous, both of them, beardless and tall and skinny, unlike any proper dwarf.

Fíli felt a jolt of fear. He stepped backward, leaves crunching beneath his feet. Dwarves? Elves? This was so familiar, yet so strange, just like these two elves.

The red-haired elf opened her mouth, but the sound that came out was nothing like what he expected. It was a deep, dark laugh, echoing through his mind. The forest closed in around him. Where was Kíli? What had happened? The spiders rose back up, shrinking and zooming forward until they crawled over his skin. All he could see now were the two elves, their faces twisted into gruesome smiles, mocking him, laughing.

Fíli sat up in his bed, gasping. The dream faded slowly from his mind, but imprints remained. Words and images slipped away, but he could still remember the feelings. Fear, panic, anger, despair, confusion... He shivered, brushing his shoulders to fend off any spiders, but they were just a figment of his imagination.

He tried to recall what had made him so unsettled. Kíli had run away from him, but now that he was awake, Fíli was not worried about his brother. He was in the room next to him, probably sound asleep. They had stayed up late watching television together. Kíli had laughed at his story of what he'd done to poor Tauriel, and Fíli had laughed along with him. His brother was fine.

But the feelings from the dream remained so _real_. Kíli lost...the huge spiders...the people towering over him... Fíli tried to summon the words his dream-self had referred to them, but they were gone. Those people had been so familiar... He'd only seen hair that red once before, upon Tauriel's head, but the strange girl from his dream hadn't looked much like her, especially after the forest had melted into darkness and the faces of her and the blond man had twisted into inhuman grins.

Was she invading his dreams now? Fíli wondered. What was this? These visions, his dream, her face...they haunted him. He rubbed his face. He felt his smooth-shaved chin and felt a jolt of surprise. For some reason, he'd been expecting a beard to be there, but he'd never had a beard.

Deeply unsettled, Fíli lay back down in his bed. It was only 3:37 a.m. He had plenty of time to try and catch some more sleep before he had to get up.

* * *

Over the next few days, Fíli couldn't get Tauriel out of his head. At work, he found himself staring across the street into Greenwood Brews. As expected, Thorin had been furious to see him walking out of the shop, but there wasn't really anything Fíli could do about it. He'd explained what had happened, and Thorin had just stomped off in a huff, warning him not to do it again.

Sometimes, Fíli would see Tauriel through the window, or watch her walking out. He caught glimpses of her brother, too.

"You're distracted," Kíli observed one evening as they headed home for the day.

Fíli shook his head. "It's nothing."

"You keep staring out into that Greenwood shop," Kíli pointed out. "Don't think I haven't noticed."

"I said, it's nothing," he insisted.

Kíli raised an eyebrow. "Really. Is this about that incident with Tauriel, the owner's daughter?"

Fíli blushed. "No!" he insisted.

Kíli laughed. "If I didn't know you better, I'd say you're a bit infatuated," he said.

"Well, you _do_ know me better," Fíli snapped. His brother's comment deeply bothered him. He _didn't_ like Tauriel that way. He'd only met her once, after all, and he'd never had a crush on anyone before. He didn't think this was a first. "I'm aro, bro."

"I know, I know," Kíli said, raising his hands. "Sorry. It's just, that's kind of how _I_ feel when I have a crush. Can't keep your mind off them, weird staring, funny feelings in the stomach...you haven't had any strange dreams about her, have you?"

Fíli felt very uncomfortable with this conversation, especially since he _had_ had a weird dream about Tauriel. "Not like _you_ mean," he grumbled. "And there's no funny stomach feelings, Kíli. It's just..." He frowned, debating whether or not to tell him about the visions he'd had when he was around Tauriel. He decided against it; that would probably only give Kíli more information to tease him with.

"Hey," Kíli said, more serious now. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to...I don't know, make you uncomfortable. I was joking. I don't seriously think you're in love or anything."

"Thanks," Fíli mumbled.

Kíli's remarks stuck with him, though. Now Fíli was paranoid not only about the strange things that kept happening to him, but about whatever it was he felt for Tauriel. _Was_ this the love he'd heard so much about? If it was, it didn't feel like anything he'd expected it to, and he found he wasn't a fan. But he was aromantic, he knew that for sure, so it couldn't be romantic attraction...and besides, he'd only talked to her once! How ridiculous!

The next time he saw Tauriel, Kíli was with him. They were on break together, loitering outside Erebor. Fíli sipped on a coffee, savoring the taste. Kíli yammered on next to him about some new movie he wanted to see. Fíli wasn't too interested; it was some romantic flick, not really his style.

Instead he stared out at the doors to Greenwood Brews. People trickled in and out. Fíli scowled. He vaguely recognized some of them as people who had once been regulars at Erebor. Greenwood was stealing their customers!

The door opened again, and out walked a familiar redhead. Fíli choked on his coffee in surprise, though this time he didn't spill it.

"Woah!" Kíli exclaimed, looking at him in concern. "You okay, bro?"

Fíli swallowed the hot coffee and wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Yeah," he said. "It's just—" He pointed to Tauriel, who walked briskly across the street in their direction. "That's her. Tauriel."

Kíli looked over to her. His eyes widened. "Damn," he said. "I can see why you can't stop thinking about her."

"Hey!" Fíli protested. "You _know_ —"

"Sorry, sorry," Kíli apologized, but he wasn't really focused on it. He stared at Tauriel instead, his eyes shining. Fíli groaned. He was in for it now. Kíli already liked her.

"Hey!" Tauriel exclaimed when she reached their side of the street. She smiled at Fíli. "I remember you. How's it going, Fíli?"

"It's—good." Fíli forced a smile onto his face. As soon as she had begun to speak, another vision had flashed into his mind. This time Tauriel stood watching him from afar off, holding a drawn bow. He was sopping wet, sitting uncomfortably in—Then it was gone.

"Who's this?" she asked, turning to Kíli.

"Uh, this is my brother, Kíli," Fíli said, nodding to him.

"Nice to meet you, Kíli," Tauriel said. She stuck out a hand, which Kíli took gently. They shook, almost hesitantly. Fíli watched the exchange curiously. "I'm Tauriel Greenleaf."

"So...how's the street?" Kíli asked, letting go of her hand. He smiled up at her.

"Not bad," Tauriel said, nodding. "Business is good."

"Our business is down," Fíli pointed out. "I wonder whose fault that is."

Tauriel laughed. Kíli watched her, his eyes bright. "Hey," she said, "you tried our coffee. It's good."

"I still maintain that ours is better," Fíli insisted.

"Well, of course he does," Kíli said. "He works there. I'm sure your coffee's great, too."

Tauriel looked at him sidelong. "Don't _you_ work there, too?"

"Well, yeah," Kíli admitted, "but—"

Tauriel laughed. "Oh, you just wanted to flatter me."

"You are quite beautiful," Kíli said, totally straight-faced. Fíli groaned. It seemed that his brother was the one in love with Tauriel now, not him.

Tauriel blushed. "What a flirt he is!" she exclaimed, turning to smile at Fíli.

"We're kind of opposites like that," Fíli agreed.

"Where are you headed?" Kíli asked her.

"Oh, my father's throwing a party for him and some of his friends," she explained. "He left earlier today, but I stayed to finish up a few things. I'm just on my way out."

"Sounds fun," Kíli said.

Tauriel shrugged. "Somewhat. He does this all the time, and his friends are frankly very boring."

Kíli laughed. They were totally involved in their conversation, and Fíli found himself effectively cut off. To him, it seemed like normal conversation, but from the looks they were giving each other, there was some sort of mutual attraction between them. Just his luck. Kíli's crushes were unbearable for him—he just never shut up about whichever person he was interested in.

Tauriel laughed at something Kíli said, and suddenly Fíli's mind flashed to a different scene. He saw through bars, and far off he could hear the same tinkling sound of an elf's laugh.

He blinked, and the vision vanished. An elf's laugh...what a silly thought. Elves weren't real, and Tauriel certainly wasn't one; she was as human as he and Kíli were. Unless... Fíli remembered that strange dream he'd had the night after he'd met Tauriel, how the red-haired figure had seemed so like her and still so unlike her...

The thought vanished from his mind as Kíli turned to him and gave him a hopeful look.

"We're supposed to go back to work now," he said, "but, uh...Tauriel invited me to come to her party. Do you think...?"

Fíli blinked. He had been so caught up in his own thoughts, he'd completely missed that exchange. He looked into Kíli's wide, pleading brown eyes, then up at Tauriel's smiling face. He sighed. "Fine, I'll cover for you."

"Thanks, Fíli!" Kíli exclaimed. He gave him a quick hug, then grinned up at Tauriel. "I'll have to stop by my house to change."

"No problem," Tauriel said. "I have to go home to change, too."

They wandered off, chatting. Fíli shook his head. What a turn of events! Now _he_ could tease Kíli about being in love with Tauriel, and he'd actually be right. He grinned, then walked back into Erebor, wondering how he could explain to Uncle Thorin that Kíli had gone out with Tauriel Greenleaf.

* * *

There was something _off_ about Tauriel, Fíli realized over the next several weeks, but he couldn't quite put his finger on it. She seemed perfectly normal, for all Thorin hated her and Kíli loved her. To Fíli, she was just another girl, though charming and friendly and an all-around decent person.

Still, for some reason he couldn't quite explain, he didn't quite trust her. He _liked_ her, and there was no real reason to think she was up to no good, but some gut instinct made him wary of her. It wasn't because she worked at a rival coffee shop, though that was where his uncle's dislike of her came from.

He was caught between Thorin and Kíli. As soon as Thorin had found out that Kíli liked her, their uncle had thrown a fit about customers and revenue and fraternizing with the enemy. Kíli had grown angry and shouted that Tauriel was a perfectly nice girl and Thorin was taking this too seriously. Now they weren't speaking.

Fíli didn't really get what Kíli felt for Tauriel. Sure, Tauriel was nice, but that was no reason to invoke their uncle's justified wrath. But then again, Thorin was being ridiculous: who cared who Kíli dated? It was his own business as a mature, responsible adult. (Well, he was an adult. Sometimes, Fíli wasn't so sure about the other two.)

Fíli didn't like sympathizing with both sides. It made dealing with family complicated, especially since Tauriel evoked strange feelings in himself. They weren't romantic or sexual as one might expect, but he couldn't help but feeling like he already knew her, and that their relationship was a complicated one. In reality, it wasn't: he'd spilled coffee on her, apologized profusely, and then she'd met his brother and started dating him. But the visions of another world that plagued his mind always, without fail, featured her. And the dreams had gotten worse: more confusing and more vivid than anything else his unconscious mind had dreamed up before.

But most of the time, despite his misgivings, Tauriel was perfectly normal and perfectly sweet.

"Kíli and I want to go do laser tag," she said one night, hanging out at the Velson apartment.

"Oh," Fíli said. "That sounds fun."

"It's gonna be great!" Kíli exclaimed, grinning. "I love laser tag."

"Have you ever even done laser tag?" Fíli asked him, raising an eyebrow.

Kíli pondered this. "Probably," he decided. "Anyway, guns, shooting, bright lights—what's not to love?"

Fíli could think of a number of things, but he had to admit that it sounded fun. "Sure."

"My brother, Legolas, he wanted to come along," Tauriel said, "so we thought we should invite you, too."

"Oh." Fíli blinked. He was interested in laser tag, and he liked hanging out with his brother. He wouldn't normally want to accompany Tauriel and Kíli on a date, but if Legolas was going too, it wouldn't be too weird. Legolas, though he'd been grumpy at first, was an okay dude. "When is it?"

"Next Saturday, probably," Kíli said. "You in?"

"Sure, why not?" Fíli said. He grinned. "I'll destroy you two."

"No way." Tauriel smirked. "I know a thing or two about laser tag, Fíli."

Fíli folded his arms. "We'll just have to see about that."

The day of the laser tag arrived, and Fíli was excited. It was bound to be fun, and he loved spending stress-free time with his brother. Plus, shooting fake guns at Tauriel might make whatever weird thing was going on between them go away. It was a bit of a stretch, sure, but Fíli was desperate at this point. Last night, he'd dreamed that Tauriel—or the strange person who _looked_ something like Tauriel—had crashed into a house that certainly wasn't his, grappling with a hideous beast.

Before going to the laser tag place, Tauriel and Legolas took them out for dinner. Fíli wasn't really hungry, so he only ordered some fries, but Kíli dug into his steak. There was a bit of a hassle when trying to pay for the meal, since Legolas had forgotten his wallet, but eventually everything was sorted out and they rushed out of the restaurant and to the actual event of the evening.

When they arrived at the laser tag place, there were further complications ahead of them.

"No. No. Absolutely not!" exclaimed Bard Bowman, manager of Lake's X-treme LaZer Tag!

"But why not?" Kíli protested. He waved his ID and credit card in Bowman's face. "I can pay!"

"I know who you are!" Bowman said. "You might have the last name Velson, but I know your uncles _and_ your mother! What terrors they were when they were your age, those Durin kids! Thorin, Frerin, Dís—I was only a low-ranking employee at the time, but I remember! They ripped the place up every time they played!"

"Come off it," Tauriel complained. "We're not the same people as the boys' parents. We'll be good, won't we?"

"Of course," Legolas agreed. He had a fierce glint in his eye that did not reassure Fíli. Legolas was a weird guy, equal parts grumpy and overeager. Fíli didn't want to be on the opposite team as him.

Bowman glared at the four of them. "No." He pointed to a sign on the wall next to the pay counter. "See that? It says 'We Retain The Right To Deny Service'. Here I am, denying service."

"Sir, Mr. Bowman, _please_ ," Fíli begged.

Bard Bowman turned his glare to him. Fíli flinched as another vision overcame him. This time it was Bowman glowering down at him, but his clothes were different and his hair longer. Fíli could feel the cold biting him, and desperation filled him and—and then he was warm in the office of Lake's X-treme LaZer Tag! and everything was normal.

He was shaken. This was the first time the visions had featured someone besides Tauriel, and he wondered what it meant. He still hadn't told anyone about them, for fear of being called crazy. Maybe he was crazy, but he was certain the visions meant something, though he couldn't say what.

Bowman looked at him oddly, but something in his expression softened. "Oh, al _right_ ," he grumbled. He tossed the four of them each vests and guns. "But do _not_ break _any_ rules, or it's a lifelong ban for you, just like your no-good relatives."

Kíli paid, then they all rushed into one of the laser tag rooms. It was bright for the moment, but a glowing sign on the wall counted down five minutes until the next session began.

"You ready?" Legolas asked.

"Hell yes!" Kíli exclaimed. He exchanged a grin with Legolas, and Fíli almost did a double-take. They _hated_ each other! What were they doing, getting along?

He blinked. What was he thinking? Kíli and Legolas got along fine, they always had, as soon as the awkward "so-you're-dating-my-sister-now-you'd-better-treat-her-right" phase had ended. Was this another one of his weird feelings? They were all baseless fears. Maybe he really ought to tell someone, or get therapy or something. This wasn't normal.

"Hey, Velson!" a rough voice called. "What team are you on?"

Fíli and Kíli both turned to see the ugly mug of Bolg Dreadly. Dreadly was tall, bulky, and obnoxious. His short blonde hair was cut in a way that made his pale, pasty face look like a cement brick. He was Fíli's age, having graduated high school in the same year, and like him and Kíli, Dreadly had stayed around town, working at his father's auto shop. Fíli had never really liked him, but Bolg Dreadly hadn't ever been much trouble. Some gut instinct told Fíli that Dreadly was no good, though it had never been proved true.

"Oh, looks like I'm red team," Kíli said, glancing down at the color of his vest.

"Me too," Fíli agreed.

"We're green team," Tauriel said, nodding to Legolas.

"Ah, too bad," Bolg Dreadly said. He wore a white vest. "It would be fun to be on the same team as you. Still, this way it can be just like old times back in gym class!"

"What, me pounding your team?" Fíli joked.

Next to Bolg, a man who was, if possible, even taller than him, laughed. "Not from what Bolg's told me. The way he says, it was the other way around." He nodded. "I'm Azog Dreadly, Bolg's father."

"Fíli Velson," he said. He nodded back, dread overcoming him. This was just a game of laser tag, but he had a strong sense of misgiving.

There were five teams: red, green, white, blue, and yellow. Fíli and Kíli stayed close to each other as the lights in the room dimmed and the doors closed automatically.

"Five teams," a booming voice said overhead. "Four enemies for you. Your weapons are your guns!" On and on it droned, telling them all the rules of the game. Fíli was only half-listening. A new vision flashed before him. He stood high above the ground, and legions of elves were before him, illuminated by the pale winter sun. Just like the others, the vision disappeared as soon as it came, and he was left disoriented in the room.

A new door had opened, and a faintly glowing maze appeared beyond it. There were already flashing lights inside as people on each of the five teams raced into the maze, shooting at each other. Beside him, Kíli shouted, "Fí, what are you doing? It's started! Come on!"

Fíli shook aside his confusion and raced after his brother into the maze.

The bright lights and loud noises brought Fíli alive. He laughed as he raced through the paths of the maze, ducking behind walls to avoid being shot and shooting his laser gun at the others in the maze.

Beside him, Kíli yelled. Fíli whirled around to face him, panicked. His mind flashed back to a different time, a different world, and he saw Kíli shout as a long blade sliced a thin cut in his arm.

" _Kíli_!" Fíli shouted, horrified. He rushed forward, trying to save his brother from the monster that attacked him, but when he arrived by his side, he was back in the maze. He barreled into Kíli, and they both fell over.

"Fíli, what are you _doing_?" Kíli demanded. "Get off!"

Shocked and dazed, Fíli rolled off his brother. "I..." he said, but he didn't have an explanation. The fear and protectiveness that had overcome him terrified him. The visions had never lasted that long before.

"Fí, I'm fine, I just got hit," Kíli explained. He pulled the trigger to his laser gun, which had stopped glowing. It made no noise and no shot. "I can't shoot for thirty seconds, that's how the game works. Are you okay?" he asked, concerned.

Fíli shook his head. "Yeah...I'm fine." He wasn't, but there was no way to explain what was happening to him. He didn't understand it at all.

Kíli's gun beeped and flared back to light. "Let's go," Kíli said. "I can shoot now. And don't tackle me again, okay?"

"Yeah," Fíli agreed. "Sorry. I lost my head back there."

Kíli laughed. "Come on, bro. Let's go!"

They watched each other's backs, and some part of Fíli felt like this was all he lived for. Though the maze was dark, his gaze sharpened, and he shot with an accuracy he didn't know he had.

"Fíli, you got me!" Tauriel exclaimed. "How rude!"

He grinned, but it was a menacing grin, full of energy but little joy. Tauriel was his enemy!

Legolas jumped off the top of part of the maze, whooping with elation. He pointed his gun at Fíli, who rolled out of the way of his shot. He had a brief, vivid vision of Legolas upside down, being held by a giant bat, shooting a bow at him. Fíli blinked. These visions—flashbacks—were getting stranger and stranger.

Flashbacks? he wondered. Where had that idea come from?

Fíli didn't have much chance to think about it. He rushed away from the Greenleafs, running after Kíli. They stopped at the edge of the maze, at the bottom of a tower, panting.

There was a rumbling above them. Fíli cursed.

"We should go check that out," Kíli said. He grinned wolfishly. "I bet we could take down anyone who's up there—we'd win _so_ many points for our team."

"Unless they're on our team," Fíli pointed out. He heard something moving outside the tower. "Did you hear that? There's something out there, too."

"I'll go—" Kíli began, heading for the direction of the stairs, but Fíli had a sudden vision of fear and despair flashing in Kíli's eyes, and he knew he couldn't let that happen.

"No!" he exclaimed. "I'll go upstairs. You check what's outside."

"Aw, but I wanna—" Kíli protested.

"I'll be fine," Fíli said, more confidently than he felt.

Kíli looked at him oddly. "I don't doubt it, but Fí—"

"Hey, this way we get double points," Fíli pointed out. Points weren't what he was worried about, but he felt an urgent need to get Kíli out of the tower—out of danger. There was something bad at the top of the tower, and he had to protect his brother from it.

"Fíli, are you okay?" Kíli asked, concerned. He grabbed Fíli's shoulders and looked into his eyes. "You're acting weird. You have been for weeks. Is this about me and Tauriel?"

"No!" Fíli lied forcefully. It wasn't, not in the way Kíli thought, at least. "Just—go, okay, Kí? I'm fine. I promise. I'd tell you if I wasn't." The lies tore him up inside, but this was all for Kíli's good. If he died up there, at least Kíli and Thorin would still be alive...

Died? Alive? What was going on? Fíli didn't have control over his own thoughts anymore. He shook, terrified at both what he was about to do and at his lack of understanding of why he was going to do it.

Kíli looked at him with deep concern. "Fíli, I think you might be sick or something. This isn't like you."

"Please, Kíli," Fíli begged. "I'm fine. We can talk about after the game, okay? It's just a game. We want to win, don't we?"

Kíli's worried expression wavered, his concern fighting with his excitement about laser tag. "Well...okay," he agreed. He hefted his gun. "We _will_ talk after this, Fíli?"

"We will," Fíli confirmed.

Kíli flashed him a smile, then ran outside, yelling and whooping in joy. Fíli took a deep breath and walked up the stairs.

Bolg and Azog Dreadly were waiting for him. Fíli glared at them, his gun pointed right at Bolg's chest.

"Velson!" Bolg exclaimed. He grinned. "I see you've found us, then. We've been shooting people from up here, it's a great strategy, I think."

"Get down, Bolg," Fíli ordered, his voice flat and serious.

"What?" Bolg asked blankly.

Fíli grimaced. Bolg hadn't done as he ordered. He shot him in the chest, point blank, and felt a rush of victory.

"Oh, come on, Velson!" Bolg complained. "What did you do that for? Sure, we're different teams, but we could have let you join us up here."

"Now it's only fair that I get to shoot you," Azog pointed out. He leveled his gun and smirked. "Any last words, Velson?"

Panic filled Fíli. He took a step backward, toward the edge of the tower. With that step, another vision flashed before his eyes: he was at the edge of a tower, held aloft by a hideous white orc. He writhed in Azog's grip, and in real life he took another step back. The vision broke, and Azog's gun was pointed straight at his chest.

Fíli took another step back, and he felt Azog flip him around, show him to Thorin and Kíli at the bottom of the tower, gurgle in Black Speech. In real life, he neared the edge of the tower. One more step, and he would fall. Beneath the tower, he heard Kíli shout in alarm.

"Go! Run!" Fíli shouted to his family, both in real life and in the vision. If Kíli would only _listen_ , he could survive, he could be spared, he could reclaim Erebor—

Azog shot him, and the orc ran him through, and Fíli fell back, tumbling from the top of the tower and down the hungry ground and he _remembered_ , he remembered _everything_.

He was Fíli, prince of Erebor, heir to Thorin Oakenshield; he was Fíli Velson, a supervisor at the coffee shop Erebor, a brother and a son and a nephew. He was a warrior, skilled and youthful and strong, he had come to slay a dragon and reclaim a kingdom; he was a normal twenty-something American kid, he had come to Lake's X-treme LaZer Tag! to have some fun with friends. He was dying alone, loyal to the last, and at least Thorin and Kíli were still alive to claim the throne of Erebor; he was getting tagged in a fictional simulation game and it was no big deal.

He was Kíli's brother. He was Thorin's nephew. He was a warrior, holding his weapon.

He was falling.

Fíli fell to the ground, and he knew both everything and nothing but most of all, he knew the blackness of unconsciousness claiming him.

* * *

Fíli woke in an unfamiliar room. His vision was blurred and everything was white. His bed was stiff and uncomfortable. He wore a strange, shapeless robe. His body ached and his head pounded.

Panic seized him. He didn't know where he was. And why did his _head_ ache, of all things? Was he alive or was he dead? Where was the gaping hole in his chest, cut open by Azog?

He tried to sit up, but he was too dizzy to get far. Beside him, a familiar hand touched him.

"Fíli, you're awake," a voice said, relieved. It sounded like his brother, but...not. "Thank God."

He blinked, trying to focus in on the speaker, only half understanding the words. "K...Kíli?" he asked.

"Yeah, it's me," Kíli confirmed. Fíli felt a rush of relief. Kíli was okay! He had survived the battle!

But he squinted up at his brother and recoiled in shock. Kíli had always been tall for a dwarf, but this...this was ridiculous! He stood at a towering height, and his face was not quite his own. Where was the stubbly beard he was so very proud of? Where were his large ears? His nose was far too small, even for Kíli, who'd always been a bit on the runty side. His hair was far too short, and the _clothes_ he wore were strange and much tighter than any garment Fíli had ever seen.

But his eyes were the same, and the concern was genuine. Fíli's heart pounded. He looked around, to see a foreign room that didn't seem to have a speck of dirt in it. Strange tubes and curtains and metal instruments were visible, and he shivered: was this some sort of elvish magic? What had happened to him?

Fíli closed his eyes, remembering what he had thought were the final moments of his life. Azog and his orcs had captured him, dragged him up to the tower, and showed him off like a prize to his horrified family and friends. He had been convinced that was the end.

Part of the fear and panic that gripped him was residual from his death—for he _had_ died, he was certain of it. Azog's blade had run him through, and he had breathed his last breath as his organs burst and blood filled every crevice in his body. Azog had thrown him off the tower, and he had tumbled down, down, down to the ground. The last thing he had seen before death claimed him was the grief and fear and rage in his brother's face, and he had felt the same.

 _At least Kíli is still alive._ That thought ran through his mind again and again: he had done his duty. He had failed Erebor, but he had saved his brother. And now, standing above him was the living proof: Kíli was alive, he was well.

But so was Fíli. Unless this was the afterlife, and they were both dead.

Fíli's eyes flew open. "Are you alive?" he asked urgently. "Am I alive? Are we dead?"

Kíli stared at him in confusion. "I—what are you talking about?"

"Azog, Bolg," Fíli said urgently. "Are they dead? Did we win? How did I survive, I swear I died!" Another thought struck him: "Is Thorin alive? Have we reclaimed Erebor?"

"Fíli, calm down!" Kíli said, frightened. "Why on earth would you be dead? Azog and Bolg are fine, too, though I don't think they will be if you decide to file a lawsuit against them. Your fall _was_ kind of their fault, after all, but you're okay, just a minor concussion. We got you to the hospital and you'll be fine. You're not dead, you're fine, Fíli. And of course Thorin's alive, he wasn't even _at_ the laser tag game, he's safe and sound back home. He called, but he's too busy at the shop to visit you right now."

The words, though Kíli meant them to be comforting, only confused Fíli more. Half of the words he didn't recognize. Lawsuit? Concussion? Hospital? Laser tag? And Thorin would be busy with his new kingly duties, but surely not too much to visit Fíli on his deathbed!

"Kíli, is this some...elvish thing?" he asked suspiciously. "Did Tauriel take me here?" Last he knew, Tauriel wasn't on the battlefield, but that might have changed while he was out, and it would certainly explain the strangeness of his situations.

Tauriel...Fíli groaned, suddenly reminded of that problem as well. They had all survived, for which he was grateful, but he knew there was no way Kíli would back down about his love for the elf. Thorin would throw a fit, and a justified one, too. Fíli was not one to understand romance in general, but this particular attachment of his brother's befuddled him even more than usual. Elves and dwarves simply did not mix. He loved his brother, and respected his choices, but that didn't mean he always understood them.

"Tauriel's outside, with Legolas," Kíli said. "What do you mean...'elvish thing'?" He smirked. "Was that supposed to be a jab at me? Hmm, maybe I _should_ refer to her as an 'elfin beauty', she might like that."

Fíli was stunned. "But...Kíli!" he protested. "You're a dw—and she's an—" He broke off. Kíli _wasn't_ a dwarf, he realized. Not anymore. He looked more like an elf, or, or—or a _human_ , which was almost worse. And he didn't...he didn't remember being a dwarf.

Horrified, Fíli looked down at himself. Dread overcame him. _He_ was human, too! He was too tall, the familiar scratch of his beard was gone, and he _felt_ different. He touched his ears, rubbed his nose: they were both far too small, far too delicate and humanlike.

"Kíli..." he said in mounting terror, "what _happened_ to us?"

"You fell off the tower in the laser tag maze," Kíli explained. "Azog shot you and you took too many steps back and hit your head at the bottom. My heart stopped, watching you, and they ended the game early and rushed you here. I think Bowman might have already given us a lifetime ban."

"That doesn't..." Fíli was at a loss for words. He didn't understand what was going on. He felt like a child again, confused and alone. But he did not have his father and mother to comfort him and explain the scary world, and though Kíli was trying, his words only confused him more.

As another wave of fear hit him, he suddenly felt tired to the bone. His eyelids drooped and he fell back into his mound of pillows. Maybe, if he took a nap, things would be back to normal when he woke up. Or maybe this was just a dream, though it certainly felt realer than any dream he'd had.

"I'm gonna...sleep," he told Kíli.

His brother nodded, stepping away from the bed. "Good idea. I'll be here, don't worry."

"Okay..."

Fíli closed his eyes and passed out immediately.

* * *

Fíli was alone. The world was dark and bleak. Winds howled in the distance, but he felt only a slight breeze dance through his hair and beard.

He wore the same clothes he'd had on when he died, thickly stained with blood and dirt. He reached down to touch his wound. Though he felt no pain, there was a gaping hole in his chest.

He looked around him. "Hello?" he called out. "Is anyone there?"

Behind him, someone coughed.

Fíli whirled around. He saw an old dwarf with a flowing gray beard. An opulent crown sat upon his head, and he wore thick, heavy robes. Fíli blinked. The last he remembered, Thorin had been wearing those clothes and that crown, but this old dwarf was clearly not Thorin.

"Who are you?" Fíli asked. "Is this...the afterlife? Where is Mahal? Where are the other dead?"

The old dwarf smiled. "I am Thrór, King Under the Mountain; son of Dain, father of Thráin. I am your great-grandfather, Fíli."

Fíli stopped breathing. He hadn't been conscious that he'd been breathing before that moment. Thrór? Thorin's grandfather, the king when Smaug had attacked Erebor? Awe overcame him. Thrór was a legend among the people of Erebor!

"I really am dead," he said softly.

"No, you are not," Thrór said strictly. His image wavered, to be replaced by a taller person: a human with a short-cropped gray beard and strict, bushy eyebrows. He wore a smart, business-like suit that looked vaguely early twentieth century.

Fíli blinked. Twentieth century? Where had such a thought come to him? In Middle-earth, time was measured in ages, not centuries. They were in the Third Age; or they had been when he died. How much time had passed between his death and wherever—whenever—now was?

"Who are you?" Fíli asked again.

"I am Thrór Durin," the man answered, his voice now faintly accented. "Businessman, entrepreneur, Scandinavian immigrant to the United States. I am your great-grandfather, Fíli."

Fíli's eyes widened, and he exhaled a long-forgotten breath. Thrór? Thorin's grandfather, the first of his ancestors to arrive in America? He really _was_ dead, then, for Thrór had died years before he had been born. All he knew of his great-grandfather were stories from Thorin and Fíli's grandfather, Thráin.

He blinked. What was happening? He remembered Thrór as both a king and entrepreneur, a dwarf and a man. Fíli felt as though he existed in two worlds simultaneously. In one, he had just died a noble but futile death at the hands of Azog the Defiler; in the other, he had just been knocked out in a game of laser tag. He was both a dwarf and a human, both living and dead.

"What's going on?" Fíli asked, desperate. "Where am I, Thrór?"

"Peace, my son," Thrór said, clasping his hands together. His image blurred and he was at once both King Under the Mountain and human businessman. "You are in-between."

"I don't understand," Fíli whispered. "I—I remember two lives. Two of me. The Fíli that died on Ravenhill, and the Fíli that's asleep in a hospital bed. I remember...the fear I felt. The Fíli who's a dwarf, he died full of fear and grief. I wanted to save my brother, save my uncle, save my kingdom, but I died. I died for them, but then I woke up in the hospital in a life I didn't remember, and I thought I'd failed..."

"Erebor is safe, Fíli," Thrór rumbled. "You did not die in vain."

Fíli closed his eyes, tears squeezing out and dripping down his cheeks. "But I _did_. Who survived? My family? Or did they die? If they did, how could that be a victory?"

"You didn't just sacrifice yourself for them," Thrór said. "You died for all your kin, all your friends. For Bilbo, for Dain, for Erebor, for the Company. For your mother."

"My mother..." Fíli sobbed. How could he have been so blind for so long? He'd lived happily, working at the coffee shop, still alive, but his _mother_...Dís would grieve for the rest of her life, and he was oblivious to it all.

But in the other world, he was still _alive_! Dís was alive, and so was Kíli, and Thorin. He saw them all the time, they were all family. There was no grieving. And his _father—_ he'd barely known his father. Víli had died when he was small, just before Kíli was born. But _Víli was alive_! Dís and Víli lived together still, only two blocks away from his and Kíli's apartment. He'd had a normal childhood, with two loving parents.

His two lives swirled together, overcoming him with confusion and chaos. Fíli sank to his knees, sobbing.

"Thrór, what _happened_?" he cried.

Thrór approached him and laid a hand on his shoulder. "We were given a second chance," he said simply. "I did not realize this in life, as you have, but after my second death, all became clear. We have lived twice. Not everyone has that opportunity, Fíli, but _we_ did. Our family."

"No," Fíli said, sitting up suddenly. "Not just our family."

Thrór narrowed his eyes, letting go of Fíli's shoulder. "What do you mean?"

"I understand now," Fíli said quietly. "I'm two people, but I'm one person. I lived two lives, like you said. I'm _still_ living one of them, and now I know. But the _reason_ I know, the reason the flashbacks began, was because of someone _else_." He stared defiantly up at his great-grandfather. "Tauriel. She's an elf, or she was. I'm surprised she didn't bring it out in Kíli, the way they were—the way they _are—_ but the first time I saw her, I knew she was from somewhere else."

"I thought..." Thrór trailed off. "I thought it was because of the orcs. Azog, Bolg. They are not so hideous and cruel in the second life as they were in the first, but they caused your fall."

"My fall was my own fault," Fíli disagreed. "I fell because of the flashbacks. _Tauriel_ triggered the first one. The other ones came after. And I don't think these lives were first or second, they just _are_. They are simultaneous. We lived twice, but we are still the same people."

"Interesting..." Thrór studied him carefully, then smiled sadly. " _What_ a king you would have made, Fíli."

Fíli's shoulders slumped. "I can't be a king anymore," he said. "But I _can_ be Fíli Velson. That life is still going."

"Yes," Thrór agreed. "Yes! You know now, Fíli, and you carry a great burden, but you can still _live_. You can take what you lost in Middle-earth and do it right in America."

Fíli nodded, filled with a new purpose. He felt the edges of his vision blurring, and knew that he was waking, returning to his life.

"Thank you, Thrór," he said, bowing to his great-grandfather.

Thrór nodded, his image flickering between dwarf and human. "You are welcome, my son."

* * *

He woke again, and this time he knew.

The ache in his head was still there, but it no longer confused him. He remembered falling in the laser tag place, hitting his head on the ground, passing out. He remembered waking in the hospital, thinking he had just died on Ravenhill. He remembered his dream, meeting Thrór. He remembered understanding, and he carried that with him now.

Kíli dozed in a chair beside his bed. Fíli sat up, his head throbbing. At the foot of his bed, in a different chair, sat the unconscious form of Legolas, Tauriel's brother. Fíli blinked, surprised and touched that Legolas would stay at his bedside. They were not that close.

"Fíli," a warm voice said softly.

He flinched, and turned to the other side of his bed. Tauriel sat there, her green eyes wide. Never, in both his lives, had he seen that gaze turned to him with such concern.

"Hey, Tauriel," he said, his voice raspier than he expected. He cleared his throat and looked away from her.

Did _she_ know? Could she remember? Kíli didn't, that he knew, but did Tauriel? Fíli trembled. He didn't want to bear the burden of this knowledge alone.

"How are you?" Tauriel asked. "We've been here three hours now, probably. The doctor said that you'd be fine, but..." She hesitated. "My mother was a doctor, before she died. I know that head injuries can be...nasty."

"Uh, I think I'm okay," he said, gingerly touching the bump on his head. "I had a, uh, weird dream while I was out, though."

"Well, dreams are usually weird," Tauriel said, looking relieved. "That's no big deal."

"Tauriel..." Fíli trailed off. He shook his head. He wanted to tell her what meeting her had done to him. He wanted her to know, despite the mixed feelings he had about her. He wanted Kíli to know, too. He didn't want to carry this burden alone. But he didn't know how to say it without sounding crazy or jealous or worse.

Tauriel frowned. "What is it?"

He sighed. "I don't know."

"Fíli, is this about..." She grimaced. "Me and Kíli? I know you don't like me that much, but—"

"No!" he exclaimed. "I don't _not_ like you, Tauriel. I just..." How could he explain? As Prince Fíli, Tauriel had been the elf who loved his brother, the person who saved Kíli, the person who captured him in Mirkwood, and he couldn't decide if he liked her or not. As Fíli Velson, Tauriel was the girl he'd spilled coffee on, his brother's girlfriend, the girl who made him flash back to another life. His feelings about Tauriel were simply too _complicated_ to sum up simply, and they could not be explained to someone who didn't know the truth about their two lives.

"Oh, God." Tauriel paled. "Fíli...do you— _like_ me?"

"No!" Fíli snapped. He rolled his eyes. "I'm aroace, Tauriel, that's not what it is either. I don't know how to explain."

"Oh." Tauriel ran a hand through her hair, her brows furrowed. "I'm out of guesses. You'll just have to tell me, Fíli."

"It's hard to put into words," he admitted.

"Just try," Tauriel said, crossing her arms. She jerked her head over to where Legolas and Kíli were passed out in separate chairs. "Those two are dead asleep. No one will overhear."

Part of Fíli _wanted_ Kíli to overhear, at least. He didn't care so much about Legolas. But he swallowed his reluctance and began.

"When I first met you, the reason I spilled coffee on you was because...you reminded me of someone I used to know," he said. That wasn't quite the truth. "She...you looked so similar. I had forgotten about her, until I met you. It made things...complicated. I didn't exactly have a...simple relationship with this other person, and I couldn't help thinking of her when I was around you." Putting it that way, it sounded vaguely romantic, but Fíli couldn't think of any other way of saying it that made sense.

Tauriel nodded slowly. "Yes..." She paused, then added quietly, "You know, I always thought you looked familiar. Kíli, too. But I could never put my finger on it."

Fíli's eyes widened. Maybe she did know—or else she was close to knowing.

"I never told Kíli," he said. He shook his head. "I didn't want to make things...weird. I _want_ to like you, Tauriel, especially since you're dating my brother, but it's...hard. I don't know what to feel."

"I thought you hated me," Tauriel admitted. "It's a relief to know you don't, even if you don't like me yet either."

On the other side of the hospital bed, Kíli jolted upright, grunting. His eyelids fluttered open.

"Fíli!" he exclaimed. "Watch out, he's—" He blinked, then frowned. "Oh. Sorry. I guess I was dreaming."

Tauriel laughed. She got up and strode over to him, giving him a kiss on the forehead. "Dear, Fíli's awake."

Kíli had leaned in to return Tauriel's kiss, but at her words, he jerked away to face his brother, his eyes alight.

"Fíli!" he exclaimed. He leaned closer to his brother, smiling, but his brows were furrowed in concern. "Are you okay? Last time you woke up, you were acting really weird. I was worried."

Fíli didn't meet Kíli's eyes as he responded. "I, uh...don't really remember it. I guess it must have been my injury making me act weird. But I'm fine now," he added quickly, hoping to reassure him.

Kíli broke into a grin of relief. "I was really worried about you," he admitted. "I don't know if the doctor will let you out today or not, but I think you're right. You're gonna be okay." He gave Fíli a quick embrace.

Fíli clutched him, tears budding in his eyes. He didn't want to let him go. After dying, he thought he'd never see Kíli again, and yet here he was. He ought to call his mother and tell her how much he loved her. He ought to call his father and tell him how grateful he was to have him in his life.

"I love you," he whispered to Kíli.

Kíli didn't say anything back, but Fíli felt it in the hug. Kíli loved him too.

* * *

Fíli came home late that night. He called his parents and told them that he was alright and that he loved them more than words could say. Dís and Víli seemed a bit confused, but he was okay with that. His whole life would be confusing after this. He just had to accept it.

As soon as he got a moment alone, Fíli cried. He wasn't usually one for tears, but this was just too overwhelming. He couldn't imagine leading a normal life now. He would be haunted by the images of his other life for the rest of this life. He could do his best to right the wrongs of what had gone wrong before, but this life of no drive, of no purpose... The Fíli who had just died was shocked by the ease of it.

How could he reconcile this? And how could he do it alone?

Someone rapped on his door. Fíli stiffened, stopping his tears. It was probably Kíli.

"Come in, Kíli," he called.

The door opened. It was Tauriel.

Fíli stared at her in shock. He had not been expecting her. In that moment, the moonlight shining in her auburn hair from his open window, she looked hauntingly like the elven warrior who had stolen his brother's heart.

The moment passed. Fíli bowed his head. "What do you want?"

"There's supposed to be a blood moon tonight," she said quietly. "Kíli and I were going to watch it together. Do you want to come along?"

Fíli hesitated. His brother's words echoed in his mind, overheard from his first conversation with Tauriel in Mirkwood: _I saw a fire moon once._ This was their moment, not his, and he was sick of third-wheeling a couple. He could see the blood moon just fine from his window.

"No, thanks," he said. "I just want to relax here, after the day I've had. You two have fun. Do your couple thing." He grinned halfheartedly.

Tauriel smiled back. "Okay," she said. "You get your rest. You need it. We'll just be up on the roof, if you need anything."

"Okay," he said. She left. He soon heard steps on the roof of the apartment.

Fíli opened up his laptop. Maybe browsing the internet would distract him.

It didn't. He closed the computer after only half an hour. He could only think of fire moons and Azog's sword and Thorin Oakenshield.

He lay on his bed. Outside, the moon darkened. Voices drifted down through his open window: Kíli and Tauriel.

He turned over. He ought to close the window. That conversation was probably meant to be private.

But they _had_ invited him to go up there. Even if he'd turned them down, he wasn't really intruding on their privacy if they'd asked him to be there. He left the window open.

"What's wrong, Kíli?" Tauriel asked.

There was a pause. "I'm worried about Fíli."

"Don't. He'll be fine."

"I know. Doesn't stop me from caring about him."

Fíli felt uncomfortable overhearing this conversation about him. He should have closed the window.

"Don't you think he's been acting a little weird?" Kíli asked.

"He got a head injury, Kíli. He'll be back to normal tomorrow."

"Yeah, but before then, even. And...he said some weird things the first time he woke up. Stuff about Thorin and Azog and...you."

Even from down here, Fíli could sense Tauriel's hesitation. When she at last spoke, it was in hushed tones. He had to strain to hear the words.

"Like what? We...talked, you know. The second time he woke up. He said...I reminded him of someone he used to know."

"What?" Kíli said. "I've never known anyone like you, until now, and I doubt Fíli has, either."

"Mmm."

"But the things he was saying...he called you, like, an elf. I thought that was really weird, for him." Fíli could almost hear Kíli grinning. "I mean, I might call you an elfin beauty, 'cuz you are, but he wouldn't."

Tauriel laughed. Fíli scowled. That joke hadn't even been funny the first time.

"He'll be okay, Kíli," Tauriel said softly.

"I know."

There was a silence under the stars. Fíli grimaced. He wished he could tell Kíli the truth, but he wouldn't understand.

"Woah," Tauriel breathed. "This is worth the wait."

"It's beautiful," Kíli agreed. "Red and gold...it just fills the sky."

Fíli sat up in his bed. That was an echo of the conversation in the dungeons, the one he'd overheard. Just like he was overhearing this.

"It even drowns out the stars," Tauriel murmured.

Fíli walked up to his window, the better to see the fire moon for himself. He had been with Kíli when they'd seen the first fire moon on the Greenway. He wished he was up there with him and Tauriel now.

"I love you, Tauriel," Kíli said.

Okay, maybe not.

"I love you, too," Tauriel said.

Fíli remembered standing in the waters of the Long Lake, watching Kíli dither with her, tell her things like this while he and Óin and Bofur waited. It was better now, he thought. There was no hard choice, no waiting family, just the easiness of requited love.

"Do you..." Tauriel began. She trailed off.

"Do I what?" Kíli asked.

"Ever since I met you, I felt like I already knew you," Tauriel admitted. "I keep having dreams about you—and my brother, and my father, and Fíli, too. Does...does it happen to you, too?"

There was a heavy silence. "No, I don't have dreams like that," Kíli said. "But...I think Fíli does."

"Fíli?" Tauriel exclaimed.

"Yeah," Kíli said. "I don't know what's going on with you two, but it's...something." He sounded almost bitter, and Fíli's gut twisted.

"Kíli, it's not..."

"I know," and he really did. "I didn't mean it like that. Damn our romance-focused society, huh? But it's something."

Fíli thought he should probably come clean about eavesdropping, but he was rooted to his spot at the window. If he looked up, he could almost see their feet dangling off the edge of the roof.

"Kíli, there's a word that I keep hearing in my dreams," Tauriel confessed. "I don't know what it means, but it's always you who says it."

"What word?" Kíli asked.

" _Amrâlimê_ ," Tauriel said, and Kíli almost fell off the roof.

"Oh my God!" Tauriel shouted. "Kíli, are you okay?"

No response. Fíli's eyes widened. He turned and raced out of his room and up to the ladder that led to the roof.

When he appeared on the roof, Tauriel screamed.

"Fíli!" she shouted. She clutched Kíli's unconscious form. "You scared me half to death!"

"You scared me!" he exclaimed. "Is he okay? The window was open, I heard—"

"He just—passed out!" Tauriel cried, her eyes full of tears. "I don't know why!"

Fíli knew why. _Amrâlimê_...He shivered. He hadn't heard that word or any other Khuzdul word spoken in a lifetime. Hearing it must have triggered some memory in Kíli.

But that wasn't important right now. They needed to get Kíli off the roof.

Fíli helped Tauriel support Kíli as they carried him back down into their apartment as gently as they could. They dropped him once, but Fíli managed to catch him before he hit his head on the ground.

Tauriel positioned Kíli on the couch, biting her lip in worry. "What _happened_?" she cried. "Why did he pass out? There was no warning, nothing at all!"

"What did you tell him?" he asked.

Tauriel didn't meet his eyes. She didn't say anything.

"Tauriel, I heard it all," he admitted. "I just need confirmation. What did you say?"

"We were worried about you," she said, starting to cry. "You've been acting weird, and—with what you told me in the hospital, it reminded me of my...of my dreams. So I asked him...and he said that _you_ were having the dreams, not him. I don't understand. We're...if my dreams are to be believed, Kíli and I are soulmates."

Fíli narrowed his eyes. "Tauriel, soulmates aren't real. What's going on with us—with all this—it's not that."

"Then what _is_ it?" Tauriel demanded, her eyes flashing. Fíli flinched. Now she wasn't just sad, but angry as well. "Fíli, what the hell is going on?"

"What did you _tell_ him?" Fíli snapped back.

"I told him something I kept hearing in my dreams!" she shouted. "A word, and _he_ was always the one saying it! _Amrâlimê_!"

"It means 'my love'," he told her, all his rage falling away. The enormity of what the word meant crashed down upon him. By Mahal's beard, what had Kíli _done_? The Kíli of Middle-earth had told Tauriel _amrâlimê_? Dwarves weren't supposed to speak Khuzdul around others. He had broken every rule, every tradition, every expectation just for Tauriel. He really loved her.

"In what language?" Tauriel asked. She was subdued now, just as he was.

"Khuzdul," he told her, no longer having the strength or desire to lie.

"I—what?" she asked. "I've never heard of that."

"Of course you haven't," he said.

"Fíli, what's going on?" Tauriel asked, sounding more frightened than he would ever have imagined an elf to be.

"I can't explain it," he said.

"Why _not_?" Tauriel was on the verge of tears again. "Fíli, I don't know what's happening to me. It's not just the dreams, it's—it's _visions_ I keep seeing, things I keep feeling and I don't understand it! Of you, of Kíli, of Legolas, of my _father_!"

"I can't tell you," he said, "it's something you have to know for yourself. I'm sorry, Tauriel." He bowed his head.

"So Kíli was right," Tauriel said softly.

"What?"

"He said you were having the dreams, too."

"I never told him that," Fíli said.

"But you _are_ ," Tauriel pressed.

"I _was_ ," he corrected.

"Tell me what they mean!" Tauriel pleaded. She grabbed his hand and pulled him close to her. Fíli squeaked in surprise as she clutched him in a tight embrace. He stood still for a moment, then hesitantly hugged her back. The Tauriel of Mirkwood would never have done this, not even to the brother of her beloved.

"Tauriel, please let me go," he said.

She let go of him quickly. "Sorry," she apologized. Her voice wobbled. Fíli drew back, but not too far.

"I don't know how to explain it, Tauriel," he said quietly. "I don't know if you'd believe me if I told you."

"At this point, I'd believe anything," she said.

Fíli looked into her eyes, and he believed her.

"Okay," he said. "When I first met you, I spilled coffee on you, right? Well, it wasn't just because you reminded me of someone I knew. I mean, it was. But that person was _you_."

Tauriel stared at him. "Yes," she whispered. "I thought...I saw you, but you were shorter, and you had a beard. But somehow I knew it was still _you_. You were in my dreams first, but recently..."

"You started seeing flashbacks of me in real life, too," Fíli finished for her. "Yeah. It happened for me too. Azog and Bolg, the guys who were up on the tower when I fell...I saw _them_ too, but they were almost unrecognizable. They were...orcs." Saying the word left a bitter taste on his tongue.

"Orcs," Tauriel repeated. "And...when you woke up the first time, you called me an elf."

"Because you _were_ an elf," Fíli said. "And Kíli and I...we were dwarves."

"But _how_?" Tauriel said. She put her head in her hands. "I remember—flashes. Imprints. Fragments. Nothing whole. I know you're right. But you seem to know _all_ of it. How, Fíli?"

"When I passed out, I thought I was a dwarf when I woke up," Fíli said. "And then the second time I went out...I dreamed of my great-grandfather. And I remembered."

"I want to remember!" Tauriel cried. "I want to know! I'm sick of this half-understanding! None of this makes sense, but I _know_ it's true! And—" She turned to the couch, staring desperately at Kíli's unconscious form. "What about Kíli? Does _he_ know, even halfway like I do?"

"He didn't before," Fíli said. "But that word... _amrâlimê_...I think it might have shocked it into him." He smiled. "Kíli never did things halfway, let me tell you, in either life."

"I know," Tauriel said. She hesitated, then said, "I remember only fragments. Kíli's only part of my life. What happened...with us? In the other...life?"

Fíli stared at her. "I don't know," he said, bowing his head.

"What do you mean, you don't know?" Tauriel demanded.

He flinched. "I died young. In battle. I remember you two meeting. I wasn't very happy with you. Sorry. I didn't like you. You were an elf, he was a dwarf— _I_ was a dwarf. But you loved each other. You...you gave up everything for him. And he tried so hard to make it work. But I died. I don't know if you worked out."

Tauriel's hands shot up to cover her open mouth. "Oh my God," she whispered. "Fíli...I'm so sorry."

A tear squeezed its way out of Fíli's eye. Kíli would have been broken by his death. They were so _close_...but he had survived. Kíli had survived to grieve for him.

On the couch, there was a raspy cough. Tauriel and Fíli whirled around to see Kíli's dark eyes opening.

"Kíli!" they cried as one. Fíli fell to his knees beside the couch, Tauriel at his side.

"Fíli," Kíli whispered. He reached out a hand, and Fíli took it, tears budding in his eyes. "Fíli, I remember. Brother." There wasn't anything else to be said. Fíli laid his head on Kíli's chest and sobbed.

After a few moments, Fíli sniffled and stepped back. It was Tauriel's turn.

Kíli didn't seem to want to get up. He just stared up at her, smiling.

"You're even more beautiful this time," he whispered. " _Amrâlimê_. My starlight."

Tears traced their way down Tauriel's face. She leaned down and kissed him softly. Fíli averted his eyes, not wishing to intrude.

There was a soft, tear-filled giggle. Fíli looked back and saw Tauriel and Kíli sitting side by side, foreheads pressed together. Tauriel was laughing softly.

"Kíli," she said, and she began to cry in earnest. Kíli held her as she sobbed. Fíli watched awkwardly, then hesitantly sat down on Tauriel's other side, patting her back.

He didn't know how long they sat there, remembering. The moon had faded back to normal by the time Fíli looked up at the window of their living space.

"We should go to bed," Tauriel murmured. "But I don't think I can, after all this."

"Do you remember now?" Fíli asked her.

She nodded, her eyes full of tears. "Oh, by all the Valar, Fíli...I'm so sorry." She turned to stare at Kíli, her eyes full of indescribable longing.

"We all lost so much," Kíli murmured.

"You don't understand," Tauriel said miserably. She hung her head. "I was an elf. I was immortal."

"No," Fíli breathed, finally understanding.

"If I had lived only a few hundred years with you, Kíli," she whispered, "it would have been worth the pain."

"You died?" Fíli rasped, staring at his brother. A pit opened up in his stomach.

"The same day as you," Kíli said.

"Thorin too," Tauriel added. "It's—you didn't deserve this. None of you."

Fíli stared at them in blank shock. He could scarcely comprehend the words. "All three of us?" he whispered. He couldn't help feeling that his death had been for nothing.

"We won," Tauriel said. "We lost so much, but we won. Dáin became King Under the Mountain. Mirkwood and Erebor had peaceful dealings after that."

"Thranduil?" Kíli laughed hollowly. "That's hard to believe."

"What about you?" Fíli asked.

"I left," she said. "I wandered. I fought in the War of the Ring—God, you don't know about that. I'll have to tell you all sometime. I lived. I was free. It hurt. I never forgot you, Kíli, but I didn't stop living." She closed her eyes. "I can't believe I'm twenty-six, and yet I've lived a thousand years. More."

"I didn't know how I could go on living my life like this," Fíli said. "But I have you."

"The other life may be over," Kíli said, "but we've still got this one. Let's make up for all the bad that happened last time."

Tauriel put an arm around each of them. "My dwarves," she said fondly.

Fíli snorted. "I'm not yours. I'm mine." But he was touched by Tauriel's warmth and love.

"I'll be yours," Kíli offered.

Tauriel leaned down and kissed him. "I know that already."

* * *

It got easier once Kíli and Tauriel knew too, but Fíli could never live the life he once had.

He treated everyone differently now. Not everyone he knew was from Middle-earth, but so many people were. Everytime he saw Bofur at work, he remembered all the happy days in Ered Luin. Seeing his parents hurt. He could only think of how Dís must have grieved, and how he had never known Víli. Whenever Thorin ordered him around at work, Fíli found himself both annoyed and nostalgic.

Thorin eventually got over Kíli dating Tauriel and even grew to grudgingly like her, though he would never admit it out loud. Fíli thought this was hilarious. After a year or two, business settled into a normal give-and-take between Erebor and Greenwood Brews, with both parties satisfied, though once again, neither would admit it.

Legolas and Tauriel liked to drop by Erebor on their breaks, to chat and to irritate Thorin. He had threatened to kick them out of the shop on several occasions, but he never actually did. Fíli and Kíli often repaid the favor, and had become experts in avoiding Thranduil's icy glare.

"Out!" Thorin hollered on on one such day. "You two—if you're not buying anything, stop distracting my employees!"

"I'm on break," Fíli pointed out as he loitered by the booth Tauriel and Legolas were sitting in.

Thorin scowled. " _He's_ not," he pointed out, pointing at Kíli.

"Ori's covering me," Kíli explained from his position snuggled up next to Tauriel.

"Back to work!" Thorin ordered. Kíli sighed and left the booth, trudging back to the counter.

"And you two," Thorin continued, "leave. Or I'll call your father on you."

Legolas sighed dramatically. "If you _insist_." He stood up and flounced toward the exit.

Tauriel shook her head as she followed. "You give up too easily, Legolas."

"I know when I'm beat!" he proclaimed.

Fíli laughed. "Bye, Thorin. I'll be back for my next shift."

Thorin shook his head and mumbled something about enemies and business, but he let him go. Fíli could only imagine what Thorin Oakenshield would have thought had he found out about Kíli and Tauriel before the Battle of the Five Armies, as Tauriel said it was called. The thought was funny, but also depressing.

The three of them walked outside Erebor and leaned comfortably against the brick wall of the shop.

"He's a weird guy," Legolas said as they settled down.

Fíli snorted. "You're one to talk."

"Yeah, what even was that walk?" Tauriel teased, shoving her brother playfully.

"I meant Thranduil," Fíli said, "but true."

Legolas gave another dramatic sigh. "You don't appreciate me!" He shook his head and turned away. "I should go back to Greenwood. At least Dad loves me!"

Fíli and Tauriel exchanged an amused look. Legolas walked back across the street, his head held high.

"He's so dramatic," Tauriel said, smiling. "He thinks it's funny."

"Kíli can get the same way," Fíli said. He raised an eyebrow and added quietly, "I don't remember Legolas being that way in Mirkwood."

"You didn't know him that well," Tauriel explained. "He was every bit as dramatic among friends—and he loosened up a lot after..." She trailed off, averting her gaze.

Fíli nodded awkwardly. "Yeah. I guess."

Across the street, Legolas had arrived at the door to Greenwood Brews. As he reached for handle, the door flew open from the other side, smacking him in the face. Legolas fell backward onto the sidewalk.

"Oh my God!" Fíli exclaimed, horrified. He raced across the street and over to Legolas.

"What happened?" Tauriel said, right behind him.

The person who had opened the door swore loudly and crouched down beside Legolas. He had a red hair pulled back into a bun and a short-trimmed beard.

"You alright?" he asked Legolas gruffly.

Legolas got up, one hand pressed to his forehead. "Uh—I think I'll survive."

"Sorry!" the redhead said brightly, unconcerned now that he knew Legolas was okay. He offered a hand. "Need some help?"

Legolas took the hand and stood up. When he was standing, he was a full head taller than the redhead. Fíli blinked. He was strangely reminded of his and Tauriel's first meeting—and that red hair seemed vaguely familiar.

"My bad," the redhead said, brushing dirt of Legolas's shirt. "I didn't see you there."

Legolas took his hand off his head and glared at him. "I can tell." He looked like he was about to punch the redhead.

"Sorry again!" the redhead said, before winking and turning to Fíli and Tauriel. "Who're you?"

"Wait..." Fíli said. He squinted at the redhead. "Gimli?"

The redhead stared at Fíli for a moment, then exclaimed, "Fíli?"

Fíli laughed and rushed to embrace his cousin. "It's been forever!" he said. "What brings you into town? Last I heard, you were across the country!"

"I got tired of home, so I thought I'd come over here and see if Cousin Thorin would give me a job at his coffee shop," Gimli explained. "I got the street right, but apparently this isn't the right shop." He shook his head. "The owner nearly shouted me out of there!"

"That's my _father_ ," Legolas growled.

"I can see the family resemblance," Gimli joked.

"Wait, you're related?" Tauriel exclaimed.

"Yeah!" Fíli said. "Gimli's my cousin. Gimli, these are my friends Tauriel and Legolas."

"Nice to meet you," Tauriel said.

"Charmed," Gimli replied.

"I'm sorry if I say I'm not," Legolas grumbled, rubbing his head. "What kind of first meeting is this?"

Fíli and Tauriel exchanged a smirk.

"Thorin's coffee shop is right across the street," Fíli said. "I can take you there—I work there too."

"That'd be nice," Gimli agreed.

"I'm gonna get some ice for my head and see if Dad will give me the rest of the day off," Legolas said. He sulked back into Greenwood.

After Fíli introduced Thorin and Gimli, he and Tauriel left them to talk business and went back to hanging out by the door to Erebor.

"You know, as first meetings go—" Fíli began. Tauriel interrupted him with a laugh.

"But seriously," Fíli continued, "I pushed Gimli off the swings the first time I met him! Don't give me that look, Tauriel, I was five and he was three. He's just got bad luck, I guess."

"I know Gimli," Tauriel said, smiling mischievously.

"What?" Fíli exclaimed. "He didn't seem to know you!"

"I mean, I _knew_ him, I suppose," she corrected. "Back in Middle-earth."

Fíli narrowed his eyes. "But—how would you...?"

"I guess Kíli and I opened up some opportunities in Legolas's mind," Tauriel explained. "I did tell you all about the War of the Ring, didn't I? Gimli was part of the Fellowship, too. He and my brother became _very_ close after that."

Fíli's eyes widened. "You mean..."

"Well, I don't _know_ ," Tauriel said, raising her hands. "Let's just say you're not the only aroace person I know, Fíli, so I don't think it was quite romantic.

Fíli raised an eyebrow. He wasn't too surprised Legolas was also aroace, though he'd never mentioned it.

"But I'm sure Legolas and Gimli have quite the future in store for them," Tauriel continued. "Maybe even the remembering kind, like you and me."

Fíli remembered how he and Tauriel had first met, in all the coffee-stained glory, then thought back to the way Legolas glared at Gimli. He grinned. "That'll be a sight to see."

**Author's Note:**

> I like to think that Gimli and Legolas will eventually remember too, and maybe sometime Bilbo comes along and he and Thorin remember, too.  
> Thanks for reading!


End file.
